Through the Past Darkly: Reflections on UFC 150

Going by the reactions in my inbox and on my Twitter timeline after Saturday’s UFC 150 main event, MMA fans know of only two kinds of judges’ decisions: obvious ones, and outright robberies. There’s some middle ground perhaps, but not much. Definitely not enough to tolerate Frankie Edgar’s narrow split-decision loss to UFC lightweight champ Benson Henderson without much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Maybe it’s the cynic in me grimacing at the outside world, but after watching five very close rounds between champion and challenger at UFC 150, I was ready for just about any result. I scored it three rounds to two for Edgar, but I’ve seen enough judges’ decisions in MMA to know that when it’s that close, you might as well flip a coin. With three people watching from different vantage points at cageside – and without the benefit of commentary or striking stats to mold their opinions – all but the most emphatic victories are subject to interpretation. You get a judge in there who values counter-punching more than aggression, and maybe Edgar goes home to New Jersey with that belt. You get a judge who isn’t afraid to hand out a 10-10 round every now and then, and maybe it’s a draw.

My point is, we have to realize that judging fights is a messy business. It’s a subjective business. This isn’t football, where the nose of the pigskin either crossed the goal line or it didn’t, and you have the benefit of replay to help you figure out which. With fighting, you can come up with all the official sounding criteria you want, but it’s still opinion-based. We’re still going around to three different people after five minutes of fighting and asking them, “So, what’d you think?” The closer the fight was, the less surprised or outraged or indignant you can be about the variety of answers.

I know that sounds like a defeatist attitude. Saying “don’t leave it in the hands of the judges” is a little like saying “don’t leave your car in the hands of a mechanic.” On one hand, that’s their whole job, so why can’t we trust them to do it and do it well? On the other hand, I think we all know that, in both businesses, screw-ups are common enough that it’s best not to risk it if you don’t have to. And I’m not even convinced that the decision for Henderson was a screw-up. Striking stats favor Edgar, but by so narrow a margin that you wouldn’t necessarily know it without the good people at FightMetric to tell you after the fact. Neither Henderson nor Edgar came especially close to finishing the fight. While they were standing there waiting for Bruce Buffer to do his thing, they had to know it could go either way.

That doesn’t mean Edgar can’t get mad and complain and throw his hat if he wants to. It just means that, when he looks back on the list of people he’s angry at after a disappointing Saturday night at Denver’s Pepsi Center, he has to include himself. Both he and Henderson left too much room for debate to be too badly shocked by either outcome.

But enough about decisions and closely contested title fights. How about some notes and observations on the rest of the card?

Are you not entertained by Donald Cerrone?

It’s weird to say this about a 29-year-old fighter who seems to be cruising into his prime, but while watching Donald Cerrone rebound from an early scare to KO former teammate Melvin Guillard in thrilling fashion, it hit me that one day we won’t have “Cowboy” around to entertain us anymore. Hopefully it won’t happen for a long time, and only after many more memorable fights, but eventually it has to happen. When it does, I’m going to be a sad, sad man.

Cerrone is a rare breed, even among professional fighters, who are themselves a strange species of human. You know how some guys love to brag that they’d do this for free? With Cerrone it feels true. At the same time, he loves getting paid, and doesn’t lie about it. While other fighters are jockeying for title shots and declaring their willingness to sit on the couch for six months if that’s what it takes to get a crack at a shiny new belt, Cerrone pleads for more action and more paychecks. The UFC is, of course, all too happy to give him both, and why not? When’s the last time you saw Cerrone in a boring fight? I almost don’t want to see him become the champ – because then the powers that be might limit him to only a few fights per year.

We always knew Cerrone had a reckless streak, but against Guillard, he also proved that he has some seasoning and some savvy. He apparently has some compassion too, as we saw when he opted to reach for a choke rather thank smacking Guillard with another unnecessary blow. Such displays of merciful sportsmanship warm the heart, but I wouldn’t count on getting that same treatment if your name is Anthony Pettis.

At least we know what to expect from Jake Shields

At this point, it would be far more of a surprise if Shields did anything other than win by slow suffocation. He’s five fights into his UFC tenure, and the most interesting bouts we’ve seen him in were the two he lost.

At UFC 150 he benefitted from a questionable strategy by Ed Herman, who would have been better off keeping the fight in the middle of the cage and at least making Shields work to get within takedown range. And yet, even with plenty of time to work on the mat and several dominant positions, Shields was in no hurry to do anything that might move him closer to a finish.

If that’s how he wants to get it done, I suppose that’s his prerogative. But when Nik Lentz surpasses you for sheer entertainment value, let’s just say you won’t have to worry about getting mobbed by fans whenever you leave the house.

Max Holloway and Justin Lawrence can’t rent a car, but those kids can fight

Remember when we used to hear about how great everything would be when the new generation of fighters entered MMA? Instead of wrestlers and kickboxers learning enough of everything else to get by, we just knew that some day we’d have a crop of youngsters who started out as well-rounded fighters and only got better. After seeing guys such as Max Holloway (who’s 20) and Lawrence (who’s 22) in action – not to mention the Rory MacDonalds and Michael McDonalds of the MMA world –it seems like the future is now.

Holloway got the better of this one, and he’s still too young to (legally) enjoy a celebratory beer. If this is the level of new talent we have to look forward to, what’s the sport going to look like in 10 years? It would be scary to think about if it weren’t so exciting.

I’m not sure what Jared Hamman is, but he’s definitely something

There are those who would criticize Jred Hamman’s corner for letting him come out for the second round on an injured leg. There are also those who would criticize Hamman himself for being so willing to block punches with his face until a referee finally makes him stop. Both seem just a tad bit hypocritical, especially in this business.

If Hamman had been playing in a regular season NBA game, sure, you call timeout and take him back for an MRI as soon as you see him limping. Fighters don’t get to do that. A career is made of too few nights to quit before you absolutely have to. Obviously that comes with some risk, as does Hamman’s strategy of marching enthusiastically into danger, but by the time the cage door is closed, the only thing he can do is try to make the best of his situation.

He’s not going to be able to change his fighting style in the 60 seconds between rounds any more than he could fix his hamstring with a loosely packed bag of ice. But if he’d stayed on the stool after the first round or retreated into a defensive shell against eventual winner Michael Kuiper, we’d be criticizing him for that. Instead he went out the way he came in: determined to do as much as he could with whatever he had. There’s something to be said for that, even I don’t know what it is.

Benson Henderson retained the title, but has yet to win the crowd

If he were a recently elected politician, they’d say that Henderson is still lacking a firm mandate. In other words, he’s in there, but just barely.

Henderson owes his UFC lightweight title to two debatable – maybe even slightly controversial – wins over the same man. That’s a little like winning an election after a recount. Or, if you prefer, after the recount was suddenly halted. Compare Henderson’s ascension to the title to that of Jon Jones or Georges St-Pierre or Junior Dos Santos. The way those guys claimed and then defended the belt, they left zero doubt.

That’s not to say that Henderson isn’t deserving of the title. He won the belt and then defended it, and while you don’t have to agree with the decision, you do have to abide by it. He’s the champ, and we must address him as such.

At the same time, he doesn’t have that aura of dominance about him. Not yet. In five fights with the UFC, he’s yet to finish anyone, and in his past three fights, there’s been less and less daylight between winner and loser. If he wants people to start treating him like the rightful king of the lightweight class rather than a temporary throne-warmer, he needs to make a statement. He needs to crush a challenger and make sure there’s no room to argue over it.

Can he do it? He sure seems physically gifted enough. In the months to come we should find out whether he’s got the mentality for it.

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